LibriVox recording of The Man from Glengarry, by Ralph Connor. Read by Bruce Pirie.

With international book sales in the millions, Ralph Connor was the best-known Canadian novelist of the first two decades of the Twentieth Century. The Man from Glengarry was his most popular and accomplished work. Immediately after its publication in 1901, the novel spent several months in the top ranks of the New York Times "Books in Demand" list.

We follow the story of Ranald Macdonald, who is shaped by family and community in rural eastern Ontario in the early decades after Canadian confederation. This is a book about the making of men, but also, ultimately, about the making of a nation, as the mature Ranald moves west to take a leadership role in the fledgling province of British Columbia.

The Man from Glengarry features adventure and romance, and is, above all, a work of serious moral purpose. "Ralph Connor" was the pen-name of the Reverend Charles Gordon, a prominent Canadian minister, and his stories are woven through with his religious convictions. His is a two-fisted Christianity — or, as he said in his autobiography, a religion that can appeal to "red-blooded" people who aren't afraid to engage in physical conflict for causes that they know are right. (Summary by Bruce Pirie)

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This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Ralph Connor
Date: 2010-09-03
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: librivox; audiobook; Canada; Ontario; British Columbia; Glengarry; adventure; romance; religion

Creative Commons license: Attribution 3.0

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Reviewer: ListeninginChicago - - December 11, 2010
Subject: Moving coming of age story
The story starts around 1860 with Ranald as a teenager and follows him through 10 years of joys, sorrows, successes and struggles as he moves from boyhood to manhood. He's no Sunday school cut-out, but a real man whose decisions shape who he becomes in life. There are also several excellent women characters - oh that I could be more like Mrs. Murray! I will not read much contemporary Christian fiction because it's often shallow and the theology is too pat and in your face. The faith that these characters live out is deep and real and moving beyond words.

Bruce does an excellent job reading this solo project. (And the setting in Post-Confederation Canada prompted me to do a bit of reading on the history of our northern neighbor!)

Reviewer: Dragonflyer - - September 14, 2010
Subject: Excellent Reading of a Christian Romance
The excellent reading of this Christian Romance is equal to and better than many commercial projects.
The book is a mix of Sunday School teaching, romance, and hard life of men of the Canadian frontier.